European F3: Vips fends off Palou to win Race 2 at Misano

Motopark’s Juri Vips defended well from HitechGP’s Alex Palou to win Race 2 in FIA European Formula 3 Championship at Misano on Sunday.

The Estonian started well to lead the race from Palou who jumped to second from teammate Enaam Ahmed and Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala. The Spaniard started fifth after penalties to several drivers for track limits in qualifying.

Ahmed held third from Daruvala with Motopark’s Sebastian Fernandez in sixth fending Prema’s Mick Schumacher but he couldn’t do for long as the German made the move stick soon as Fernandez dropped to the fag end of Top 10.

Meanwhile at the front, Vips had to defend hard from Palou who looked quicker at one point but the Estonian managed to keep the position. Ahmed though lost out to both Daruvala and Schumacher in a quick succession.

The Indian hung on well to third while fighting hard with Schumacher but a suspension failure ended his charge with Schumacher gaining a place to third. Behind, Motopark’s Dan Ticktum also gained places along with Prema’s Ralf Aron in the lower half.

Meanwhile, Vips held on well in the end to win the third race of his season with Palou only 0.521s behind. Schumacher completed the podium with Ahmed in fourth but the HitechGP driver was penalised for track limits after the race.

He then dropped to sixth as a result helping Ticktum to fourth and Aron in fifth. Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg was seventh from Prema’s Robert Shwartzman with Carlin’s Sacha Fenestraz and Motopark’s Fabio Scherer completing the Top 10.

The Swiss driver made up five places to finish in the Top 10 with Fernandez eventually losing 10 places to finish only 15th. Also losing out hugely was Prema’s Marcus Armstrong after a slow start for the Kiwi to end up 13th.

Freelance motorsport writer/PR. Loves motor racing, follows Formula 1 closely and most of the junior single-seater racing. Interest expands to MotoGP as well and prominent closed-wheel racing along with Indian motorsport.